Bold Bowditch targets Cup double

Steven Bowditch is just four good rounds away from attaining his Presidents Cup dream and solidifying a real shot at the FedEx Cup.

Steven Bowditch.

Steven Bowditch is four rounds away from solidifying a real shot at the FedEx Cup. (AAP)

An under-the-radar Steven Bowditch is eyeing a coveted Cup double and has targeted the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston this week to rocket him into calculations.

With 21 holes to play at The Barclays last week, Bowditch's Presidents Cup and FedEx Cup dreams were slipping away but the Queenslander dug deep to thrust his name back into the spotlight.

In a tie for 64th at the time and without any world ranking points for the Presidents Cup and significant gains for the FedEx Cup where he is striving to stay in the top 30 for the Tour Championship, Bowditch fired up.

With an eagle and a birdie to close out round three followed by a bogey-free final round 64 that was only bettered by countryman and winner Jason Day's epic 62, Bowditch rocketed to 13th.

The net result was a move up to a career-high 54th in the world rankings, just fractions behind New Zealand's Danny Lee who sits 53rd and occupies the 10th and final automatic qualifying spot for the International Presidents Cup team.

Should Bowditch leapfrog Lee in this final week of qualifying and stay ahead of other hopefuls behind him, he will join Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman as Australians in captain Nick Price's team.

His gutsy effort at Plainfield Country Club also bumped his FedEx Cup position to 20th, giving him every chance of qualifying for the Tour Championship in the next fortnight where every player will compete for the season-long FedEx Cup and $US10 million bonus.

Tour championship players are also automatically exempt into the four majors of next season and Bowditch has never played an entire major season.

"It's certainly foremost on my mind if I am honest. There is no doubt they are goals I desperately want and I am trying to work out what I need to do on this golf course to play well and get myself onto that team and into the tour championship," Bowditch told AAP.

"It will be a little bit hard not to be looking for Danny's name on the leaderboards as it is so close and I've been really focused on it. I want to be in that team.

"I will be looking for his name every now and then but I know there are other guys right around there like Sendo (John Senden) and Jonesy (Matt Jones) and Sang-Moon Bae who can leapfrog guys with a good week.

"At the end of the day there is still only one thing I can control and that is playing my game.

"Hopefully this week I can play well and get two huge goals achieved in one go. I am looking forward to that challenge."

Bowditch admits winning the FedEx Cup has crossed his mind but he refuses to get ahead of himself, knowing he must perform now before coming up with potential ways to spend $10 million.

"Look it is something that does cross my mind a little bit but you want to first of all get the first couple of goals out of the way and then I can reassess and work out how can I give myself the best chance at the tour championship if we get there," the two-time tour winner said.

"It is a long way away yet and I have to just reach the goal of getting there first and go from there."


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Source: AAP


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